My Guest Blog Spot

A week or so ago I was browsing through some blogs as I tend to do once or twice a week and came across lifeinslowmotion a blog on the Wordpress blogging platform.

As I was reading the bloggers post the author asked if any of her readers wanted to contribute a post for a guest blog spot. As I have never done a guest blog spot before this immediately appealed to me. I got in contact with the blog's author and threw my hat into the ring.

The lady who runs the blog and I emailed back and forth so that I could get the word count, tone of the piece etc sorted. As you know my blog posts can be long affairs so when she set the limit at 1,000 I panicked and said I may struggle. Thankfully she upped the final count to 1,500 words and I happily came in well under that with a word count just above 1,200.

Writing a guest blog post is a nerve wracking experience which I had never truly appreciated before. Running your own blog is fun, you make all the decisions. I have never handed over editorial control to anyone and those of you who know me personally know what a complete control freak I can be about everything!

When Bee agreed to be my guest blogger a few weeks ago, I am sure I didnt understand the pressure she was under. I also felt pressure in not attempting to change what she had written beyond recognition and therefore rendering her voice mute. Each writer has their own style and flow. I felt when "tweaking" Bee's post (and it was tweaked very, very lightly) that all I should do was allow it to flow and just break up the big paragraphs into smaller ones. I have learnt the hard way and through personal experience fellow bloggers / readers do not want to be confronted with huge chunks of prose.

I have published a few paragraphs of the guest blog post which was published on Friday 8th August

"Every time you find humour in a difficult situation, you win"

I found this quote on twitter a few weeks ago and have been searching for the author of it because I think these are words to live by. I have had my dark times when my illness has made me feel very low but I have never lost my sense of humour.

I have always had a dark / dry sense of humour and since being struck down by a chronic illness in 2007, it has been this sense of humour that has got me through. Obviously with the support of friends and family.

Outsiders have always perceived me to be a negative / pessimistic person however I would call myself a realist. If I know what the worst case scenario is I can prepare myself should it come to pass. With my illness dysautonomia, (a name which covers a multitude of sins)  seeming to be progressing, affecting more parts of my autonomic nervous system, no one has raised the subject  that this may actually kill me. The truth  is no one knows how the dance (thats what I call my illness for I am forever dancing to its tune!) will pan out. So I am left wondering what happens next?

To read the rest of the post please go to Life in slow motion